Home owners, sitting on a near tripling of house prices over the past 20 years, are largely immune to warnings that the housing market is overheated.

Farmers are being cautioned to prepare contingency plans amid early signs of a large El Nino climate event this year.

New Zealand's milk production growth is likely to be constrained over the next five years as the ability to change land use will become more difficult and expensive.

Fonterra's farmer members will be offered two opportunities to lock in the price paid for a percentage of their milk in the 2014/15 season.

A popular farming publication wants farmers to lock out fishers and hunters over what it calls an anti-dairying attitude by their governing body.

A 'really, really sore' Waikato farmer had to walk 45 minutes for help after she was stung at least 50 times in the head when she stepped in a 'big hole of wasps'.

John Morell is one of a rapidly dying breed - rural owners who train their own racehorse from a farm.

How do you stop truckloads of unsaleable food from going to the dump - and turn it into something useful? Put a few thousand piggies in the middle.

Federated Farmers chief executive Conor English said he would not rule out a career in politics when he steps down as chief executive of the farmers' group in July.

My heart sank when I heard about Fonterra's idea to reduce the dairy industry's impact on our environment, writes Sue Kedgley.

Economists say a combination of rising international dairy prices and favourable farming conditions bode well for New Zealand's economic growth.

So little sunlight is being shone on how we are dealing with water and emissions ...

Fonterra has raised 1.25 billion renminbi in its second Chinese currency denominated bond, which it will use to repay debt and expand operations in China.

All commercial users of water should face a charge, writes Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons. This would acknowledge public ownership of the rivers and create funds to invest in repairing them.

Many city-dwellers may still peg rural women as domestic types, but modern farming women are on the land or in the office, running big businesses and driving the exports that are the backbone of NZ's economy.

Australia's largest dairy cooperative Murray Goulburn (MG) looks set to follow Fonterra in adopting a specialised financial instrument to expand its capital base while retaining exclusive farmer ownership and control.

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says the company is "eight to 10 years" behind other dairy players overseas when it comes to sustainability.

Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage, industrial and agricultural waste enters the world's waterways, writes Sam Judd.

A Mid Canterbury herd manager who admitted breaking the tails of at least 154 cows has been sentenced to eight months' home detention and will have to apply to own animals in the future.

Sam Judd writes that perhaps the biggest environmental problem we currently face is the contamination of our waterways by nutrients.

A mild winter and a favourable spring have boosted confidence in the New Zealand beef industry after last summer's challenging drought, says Rabobank.

Ministry for Primary Industries officials have approved an incursion programme in mid-Canterbury following a spillage of one of Europe's most invasive arable weeds - black grass - found in a consignment of imported fescue seed.